Fij Asks Bickers

To celebrate the first release of the Pete Fij / Terry Bickers free download track, Pete and Terry will be doing a Q&A answering your questions about their collaboration, their past endeavours, future plans and anything else you might want to ask.Click here for details of how to ask Pete & Terry - but don't dally too long - you have until Friday 26th October to get your questions in.



In the meantime, to get the ball rolling, the two have agreed to interview each other, and this week it's Pete Fij -  our very own intrepid Carl Bernstein , who sat down and put some questions to Terry Bickers.

Pete Fij :Who were your musical heores when you were young?

 
Terry Bickers : The Police, U2, Siousxie & The Banshees, Magazine, Echo & The Bunnymen, Gary Numan (Tubeway Army).

Although we have a shared sensibilities about a lot of things, I think in other ways we are very different people - Which animals would you describe yourself and me as?

I like the symbolism of the spider in Shamanism. In it they represent us being weavers of our own reality reminding us of the creative power we have in shaping our own lives, spinning our web so to speak.

We first got together some time ago - I think we first played back in 2009 - how has the project/collaboration been in comparison to what you expected?

 
I expected/ hoped that our project would evolve into a group but I am happy with us being a duo now. I am thinking of using technology to add more layers to the sound (loops etc).

Our paths never crossed back in the Creation days (and judging by tales of both of our pasts maybe that's just as well, as I'm not 100% sure the twenty-something Pete & Terry would have got on), but I sense you were a very different person back then to the Terry I know now. What do you think the old Terry would have made of these songs - and would he have approached this project differently? 

I would have approached it in the same way I always have done when working in collaboration. When doing this I try to compliment each song in an appropriate way. Back then the ideas would probably have been less developed, more off the cuff.

What bands/artists from the last few  years have caught your eye (or ear)?

The Dears, Arcade Fire. Papa M, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Marina & The Diamonds, MGMT, Cashier no 9, Great Lake Swimmers, Eliza Jaye and the Tarts (Brighton band), Hollow Moon (Brighton band), Das Fenster (Brighton based band something akin to Kate Bush meets Radiohead)

If you had the option to travel back in time and revisit your earlier life would you go back and change anything - and if so what?

 

I would probably have to make quite a few trips to go back and stop sabotaging various opportunities that came my way in life.

And if you could speed on back past your birth - what era would you most like to visit?*

 *NOTE: Time travel option can currently only go back in time, not into future

Maybe pre- agricultural/ industrial revolution to see some of the wilder parts of the UK?

When you are an old, old man and come to write the story of your life - what will it be called?

'Sideman'

What one thing that you haven't yet done in life would you most like to do?

Make an album of my own songs.

Tune in next week for the second part of the process - 'Bickers Asks Fij', and don't forget to drop us line with any questions you might have for our songsmiths.

You can also keep up to date with all things Bickers & Fij-shaped to via the Facebook Page

Ask Bickers & Fij

Following the release of their free download, Pete & Terry will be opening the lines of communication and will be doing a Q&A session, so if you have any questions for our two downbeat troubadours then drop us a line.

One question might be: "why is Pete holding an umbrella in the photo to this story when he is quite clearly in the underground away from the rain?", but we will leave it to your imagination.


You can either e-mail your questions to info(AT)petefijterrybickers(DOT)com , you can message the duo at their facebook site, or you can post a message below this entry. All questions considered - from the profound to the bizarre, so get messaging.

In the meantime you can see the cross-examination here as Fij asks Bickers  and Bickers asks Fij

German Sublime Interview

Our friends at Sublime have posted an interview with Pete, in the run up to the forthcoming gig in Regensburg in Germany on April 7th ,  where he reveals some of the influences on the forthcoming Bickers & Fij album, as well as his tips from the underworld of the Brighton music scene, as well as memories of Creation, Adorable, Polak, and what he gets up to in his spare time when he isn't playing melancholic music with Mr Bickers.

The interview is in both English & German and can be seen here

Click here for full details of Pete & Terry's German dates in April.

Interview / Rozhover

Pete & Terry's first interview as alt-country's latest odd couple is published here in an interview with Pennyblackmusic.com .

Here the duo exclusively reveal that they first met in a bakers shop, and already the first signs of tension between the two are evident with the revelation that Pete is vexed by Terry's choice of socks. Remember where you read it first.

There is also an interview with Pete in this month's Fullmoon magazine (left), though if you are not fluent in Czech, you might struggle.